Upanishads · Tārasāra 1.8
॥
Devanāgarī
इति य एवं वेद । सोऽमृतो भवति
Transliteration (IAST)
iti ya evaṃ veda | so'mṛto bhavati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
इति यः एवं वेदiti yaḥ evaṃ vedawhoever knows thus
सः अ-मृतः भवतिsaḥ a-mṛtaḥ bhavatibecomes immortal
Translation
«Whoever knows thus becomes immortal».
Version
dd2e2c1fc2c7 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The formula ya evaṃ veda, "whoever knows thus," is constant in the upaniṣads and is always placed after an analysis. It is worth examining what veda, "knows," means here, because it is understood two ways, and both are legitimate. The first: to know as information — that is, to remember that "oṃ" is the self and "namaḥ" is nature.
The second: to know as acknowledgment — that is, to agree with this and live accordingly. That the second is meant is clear from the fact that no one would promise immortality for information alone; yet the book does promise it. The Vaiṣṇava side reads the word veda in such places in the second sense, and cites in confirmation a verse of the Gītā where the same word is used with an explanation: "whoever knows in truth My divine birth and action, having left the body, does not go to a new birth, but comes to Me, O Arjuna" (4.9).
It is worth noting the addition tattvataḥ, "in truth," that is, according to the substance of the matter, not by hearsay. Let us add that there is a simple everyday test for this. One who knows fire burns does not put his hands in it; and if a person who knows that "namaḥ" means "not mine" continues to consider everything he owns his own, he does not know in the sense meant here.
And so every promise attached to the formula "whoever knows thus" should be read not as a promise for erudition, but as a promise to one in whom knowledge has passed into life.